Written on January 3, 2008 – 10:37 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
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In 1998 I got my first always-on Internet connection via my cable provider. The move from dial-up to cable was huge. Speed was an important factor but the fact that I could access the internet at any time had an even bigger impact.
After the shift from dial-up to always-on came mobile. Mobile hasn’t caught on as we hoped it would. And it turns out it might look different than we thought. No ordering pizza on a black & white WML generated iMode site. The future of mobile internet looks different. It looks like the iPhone and more important: the Amazon Kindle.
The interesting thing about the Kindle isn’t so much the fact that it has a Wireless Connection built it. It is the fact that this Wireless Connection is free and comes bundled with the device. The seperation between gadget and mobile connection is gone. The Kindle comes with Ubiquitous Internet.
2008 will see more evidence of the Ubiquitous Internet. SanDisk launched a new USB stick today called the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus. This storage device, which SanDisk believes is the first of its kind, will automatically save all data stored on it to Amazon’s S3 storage service via a synchronization service called BeInSync. The device is cheap but comes with a $29.99 a year subscription to the BeInSync online back-up service.
The interesting thing about the Cruzer and Kindle is that they simply provide you with a service and you don’t have to think about this data being on of offline. It is simply there for you and available everywhere.
There have been indications that Google is working on an offline client for their Google Docs Application suite. The interesting thing about an offline client would not just be to work offline instead of online but again to remove the distinction between the two. With a client installed at your computer your documents would simply be everywhere, and always available, forever.
The question is if Ubiquitous Internet will dramatically change business models and enable new companies. Obviously BeInSync will do well and so will Amazon. But what start-ups can we envision taking advantage of an always-on economy?
Written on January 1, 2008 – 10:55 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
Every year it takes webmasters a few days (or months!) to realize that it is a new year and they should update the copyright notices at the bottom of their websites. I know, it is trivial, but I just can’t help but smile when I see the most expensive and well watched frontpage of the world display ‘2007′ when it is actually 2008
Google and Yahoo: both wrong
CNN and Reuters: Reuters wins!
Wired and Techcrunch: both wrong
Apple and Microsoft: sorry Apple fans, both wrong
See any other funny examples of outdated websites?
Written on December 27, 2007 – 3:11 pm
Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Fleck
Web2.0, the new web, the next web, or whatever you want to call it got a lot of attention over the last 2 to 3 years. Some very cool new services and companies sprung out of the new breed of technology entrepreneurs. However, only few of these new companies manages to reach a broad audience and have a hard time to cross the chasm. The technology scene seems mainly ‘a guy thing’.
The innovators, the people who love technology and love to test new stuff are fairly easy to reach, weblogs like Techcrunch and ReadWriteWeb write extensively about new companies, but their audience is, although large, limited to web-savvies and… men.
Where are the women?
“Women use the web to streamline their lives NOT as a replacement to having a life. To make a date, not to have the date”
Martha Orloci
To reach the masses you need women as well. Look at it as if you go to a party. A small party with your 20 best friends is a lot of fun and no women are needed to have a good time. If you’re throwing a party for 40.000 people (Sensation for instance) it will be a hard sell if men are the only ones interested. It is the same with web services, if you want to be BIG (mainstream) you need men and women.
I was talking to Martha Orloci, a Canadian women who just caught ‘the web2.0 virus’. She explained me the difference between what men and women are doing on the web.
“To understand why there are so few women writing, strategizing, creating, or participating in designing 2.0 projects, looking at my friends and acquaintances (30-55 year old, strong, smart, well educated women who are technically sophisticated). Their time is very valuable, spare time is scarce. They use the Internet as a tool to gain some efficiency in their day. They pay their bills, do their research, check their mail. They use it to streamline their lives NOT as a replacement to having a life. As they’ve told me, they use the Internet to make a date, not to have the date”
She answered some questions about women on the web extensively on her blog (thanks Martha)
So, how do we get women on the web2.0 train?
One thing that could help is a female role model, a female Steve Jobs would probably do the trick. Web2.0 needs a successful and charismatic female technology icon to have a chance to get the attention of women. Someone who inspires other women to fall in love with technology, someone who can spread the word.
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